Real-time acoustic observations in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago

Abstract

The main sources of noise in the Arctic Ocean are naturally occurring, rather than related to human activities. Sustained acoustic monitoring at high latitudes provides quantitative measures of changes in the sound field attributable to evolving human activity or shifting environmental conditions. A 12-month ambient sound time series (September 2018 to August 2019) recorded and transmitted from a real-time monitoring station near Gascoyne Inlet, Nunavut is presented. During this time, sound levels in the band 16–6400 Hz ranged between 10 and 135 dB re 1  μPa2/Hz. The average monthly sound levels follow seasonal ice variations with a dependence on the timing of ice melt and freeze-up and with higher frequencies varying more strongly than the lower frequencies. Ambient sound levels are higher in the summer during open water and quietest in the winter during periods of pack ice and shore fast ice. An autocorrelation of monthly noise levels over the ice freeze-up and complete cover periods reveal a ∼24 h periodic trend in noise power at high frequencies (>1000 Hz) caused by tidally driven surface currents in combination with increased ice block collisions or increased stress in the shore fast sea ice.